Professional Portfolio - O.R. 4-6-00: Where are the Good Things in the Big Bedroom?"

Education Emancipation Organization blog presents the David Barry Temple Professional Portfolio. In these posts you shall find my collection of observation reports, letters, newspaper articles, photographs and other documents spanning my career as a teacher of English as a Second Language, from 1979 up to the present for your information and usage.

High-schooler published in famed ‘Nature’ journal

CANCER RESEARCH:Szu Fu-en’s biology teacher at Jianguo High School praised his achievement, saying it was like receiving the Nobel prize in scientific journals

By Liang Pei-chi and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School student Szu Fu-en smiles in Taipei on Thursday. Szu is the coauthor of “Structures of human phosphofructokinase-1 and atomic basis of cancer-associated mutations,” a paper published in the scientific journal Nature.

Photo provided by Szu Fu-en

A Taiwanese senior-high student has the distinction of being listed as a second co-author of a research paper published by the science journal Nature that could prove helpful to developing a new target drug to treat cancer.

Szu Fu-en (司福恩), a student at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, said he was invited to participate in research led by Columbia University professor Farhad Forouhar when he visited the US during the summer before his second year of high school.

The paper, “Structures of human phosphofructokinase-1 and atomic basis of cancer-associated mutations,” was published on May 18 by the scientific journal.

Szu said he spent six to eight hours every day at the Columbia University lab observing DNA in various solutions and factors, such as temperature and solution ratios, which led to protein crystallization.

Sometimes it would take two to three days before crystallization occurred, Szu said.

While attributing his findings in part to luck, Szu said he was thankful to Forouhar for allowing him to participate in the research.

“Dr Forouhar had said the structure I noticed was promising, but I had not expected it to become the key component,” Szu said.

The paper had six authors, led by Forouhar, with Szu listed as a second co-author.

Lin Tsung-hui (林聰慧), Szu’s biology teacher at the Taipei high school, said she had “goosebumps” when she heard of Szu’s achievement.

“[Having your name in] the journal Nature is [like receiving] the Nobel prize in scientific journals,” Lin said.

National Taiwan University (NTU) biology professor Juang Rong-huay (莊榮輝) commended Szu for having his name listed in the journal, saying that Szu’s finding is a cog in the machine.

Juang said that the spirit Szu had put into the project deserved special commendation because experiments for protein crystallization involve a process of trial and error, and hard work may not result in success.

Szu has been accepted into NTU’s school of forestry and resource conservation.

After finishing his course at NTU, Szu said he hoped to continue his studies in the US, preferably at Columbia University, majoring in chemistry or biology.

Students stage nationwide protest

CURRICULUM CONTROVERSY:Students from at least 16 high schools from across Taiwan are protesting the ‘China-centric’ curriculum that they say was ‘bulldozed’ through

By Rachel Lin, Liang Pei-chih and Chen Wei-han  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Students at New Taipei Municipal Zhonghe Senior High School take part in a forum to debate the Ministry of Education’s controversial adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines at their school on Thursday.

Photo provided by a student

A wave of high-school student protests against the Ministry of Education’s controversial adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines has escalated, with students from at least 16 high schools campaigning in nationwide, coordinated action.

Following a sit-in organized by National Taichung First Senior High School students earlier this month, the initiative has drawn support from fellow students at National Hsinchu Senior High School, Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School and National Wuling Senior High School in Taoyuan, among others.

Opposition to the modified curriculum set to be implemented in August stems from perceived procedural flaws by the ministry, as well as changes to history textbooks that critics say reflect a “China-centric” view.

The ministry has been “too dogmatic” in bulldozing through the curricular adjustments, students at National Chu-pei Senior High School in Hsinchu County said, adding that they hope that history teachers can be freed from political interference and join the students’ cause.

Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School student Ho Wei-tzu (何蔚慈) said that the school’s student association is set to organize larger protests nationwide in collaboration with fellow students at National Hsinchu Senior High School.

The anti-curriculum campaign aims for the revocation of the adjusted curriculum and a re-evaluation of the curriculum-reviewing mechanism, he said.

“The ministry, as the governing body [of education], is culpable by failing to maintain procedural justice [in modifying the curriculum], on which civic education has placed great emphasis. The new curriculum of civic education is thereby problematic,” he said.

Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School teacher Tseng Yi-ming (曾宜敏) said that she was pleased to see students respond to social issues, as the purpose of education is to foster students’ ability to think critically and act correspondingly.

New Taipei Municipal Zhonghe Senior High School student activist Liang Yan-jou (梁艷柔) said that students organized a forum to debate changes to the curriculum on the campus last week, attracting more than 200 students and teachers.

A series of activities organized by high-school students against the curricular adjustments include a panel discussion moderated by spokeswoman of the Black Island National Youth Front Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) at Jianguo High School yesterday; a demonstration marching from Jhongli Station in Taoyuan tomorrow; a forum at National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School on Wednesday next week; and a panel discussion at SuSu Second-Hand Bookstore and Guesthouse chaired by education activist Chou Wei-tung (周威同) in Taitung County on Thursday next week.

Facebook communities have been established to mobilize more students to advance the campaign.

Additional reporting by Weng Yu-ming and Wang Chun-chieh

Minister of education affirms curriculum guidelines

IN WITH NEW?：Opposition legislators said the presence of a new curriculum does not automatically invalidate an older one — contrary to ministerial statements

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Thu, May 07, 2015 - Page 3

Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) yesterday said that the new curriculum guidelines should be followed in new textbooks set to be printed and would be used to draw up college entrance examination questions, despite widespread criticism.

The legislature’s Education and Culture Committee again invited the minister and other related public officials to report on the curriculum adjustments, which opposition legislators and civic groups have said were made dishonestly, and move students toward a Chinese-centered perspective.

Since the Taipei City Government recently said that its schools would continue using the unadjusted curriculum amid ongoing legal issues pertaining to the new one, five of the six special municipalities — barring the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-governed New Taipei City — have decided to stick to the previous curriculum.

KMT legislators Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) and Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) expressed their worries over the “one country, two systems” problem concerning the textbooks and its possible effect on students, with Chen questioning the legitimacy of Taipei City Government’s calling on the ministry to avoid including contentious parts of the new curriculum in the nationwide exams.

“The new curriculum guidelines would be an executive regulation by which the schools should abide. With their promulgation, the old curriculum would cease to exist, and the exams would be based on the new curriculum,” Wu said.

Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) challenged Wu’s statement, saying that the emergence of a new curriculum does not automatically invalidate an older one.

Democratic Progressive Party legislators Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) and Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) said that as the license issued by the ministry for printing textbooks based on the old curriculum would not expire until 2018, there should be no legal prohibition against using textbooks based on the old curriculum.

Refusing to respond directly to the question of whether the license is legal, Wu repeated that the previous curriculum should be replaced.

Conventions have guided the process of the replacement of the old with the new curriculum, “and since there had been little controversy in the past, the invalidation of the old textbook license was never officially required. However, without it, we have an ambiguous situation now,” KMT Legislator Chen Pi-han (陳碧涵) said.

Challenged by Cheng on the adjustment-making procedures, which she accused of being illegitimate and flawed, the minister appeared piqued and urged the legislator to “point out the controversial parts to allow [all] to face [the contention] in a sensible way.”

However, when Cheng picked up his appeal for opening up and requested a new round of public hearings on the parts met with disputes, Wu said “the writing of the [new] textbooks has been finished” and the ministry will “showcase the new textbooks for public examination.”

The committee, after hours of negotiation, resolved the passage of two extemporaneous motions: that the ministry will respect each school’s right on textbook choosing, and that the College Entrance Examination Center will avoid controversial topics when designing the exams.

Groups protest curriculum changes

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

New Power Party legislative hopeful Hu Po-yen, center, and his supporters yesterday plant seeds in a flowerpot in front of the Legislative Yuan during a news conference to criticize the government’s adjustments of the high-school curriculum guidelines.

Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

A group of authors and professors of literature yesterday gathered outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to protest against the new high-school Chinese language curriculum which reincorporates a high percentage of classical Chinese material while neglecting Taiwanese and contemporary literature.

Na Su-phok (藍士博), one of the founders of the Alliance of the Young Safeguarding Taiwanese Literature and History, said that while concerns have been raised against the adjustments made to the history and civil education curriculum guidelines, there have been relatively few objections made public against the adjusted curriculum for Mandarin Chinese-language study.

However, that does not mean that the adjusted Chinese-language curriculum is problem-free, Na said.

“On the contrary, the problem is serious to the point that [the curriculum] is in the intensive care unit,” Na said.

Chu Yu-hsun (朱宥勳), a young author of several books and editor of anthologies of contemporary Taiwanese fiction and essays, said that the percentage of classical Chinese has been raised from 55 percent to 65 percent, with less flexibility.

What is more, according to Chu, a subject called “Chinese culture basic materials” has been singularly highlighted in the new guidelines, which suggests that is to be set up as an elective.

Classical Chinese literature is set to take up 72 percent of the allocated learning hours for Chinese-language study, Chu said.

He opposed the arrangement, saying that the curriculum should be designed to introduce young students to literature “from recent to ancient times and from easily accessible texts to works that require further interpretation.”

Earlier this week, another group of academics also drew attention to the new Chinese-language curriculum.

Referring to themselves as the Alliance for Saving the Education of Chinese Language, the group campaigned for even more class hours for Mandarin Chinese and the adaptation of “Chinese culture basic materials” as a required course.

The alliance, led by National Taiwan University political science professor Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), who is also the chairman of the pro-unification Chinese Integration Association, has said that younger generations — without the cultivation of Chinese culture — have become empty, “with no identity, confidence, patience, vision, direction or viewpoint.”

Chang also said that more Mandarin Chinese-language learning hours would equate to “more filial piety and sibling love.”

Former Soochow University president and alliance member Liu Yuan-chun (劉源俊) said he worried that Taiwan “would become the next Philippines,” if Chinese culture continued to lose its influence in public education in Taiwan.

Their comments have since been widely ridiculed and criticized as a “great Chinese superiority complex,” and as examples of explicit racism for deeming other cultures to be less sophisticated and less worthy of respect.